Eddie Bulatao’s first taste of cooking was in the sweaty streets of Quezon City in Metro Manila.
Many memories of his upbringing in the Philippines are blurry. He remembers refusing to climb the coconut trees with his cousins, and relishing the 700 mango trees on the farm they grew up on. But one day remains vivid: the moment his friend John Michael, JM for short, handed him a warm, pillowy cloud he called a hotcake.
Bulatao was hooked. So much so, he pinched the recipe and started cooking them himself and selling plastic bags of the delicious morsels for pocket money.
In the years since, Bulatao’s culinary journey has been vast. A start at Red Rooster — a job he still speaks of fondly — before an apprenticeship at Three Five Three in Wembley under Todd Thorburn, a man he says taught him everything he knows. The hours were long, and the skills invaluable.
It was in this kitchen that he was introduced to what were then referred to as modern Australian ingredients: emu with a chocolate jus, crocodile and kangaroo. He foraged for nasturtiums, wondering at first if it was legal to use florals plucked from the garden on a plate.
Stints at Coogee Common and Lawson Flats came next, and his fascination for native ingredients continued to grow. Time spent with Aboriginal elders in Queensland trying grass trees and green ants for the first time (they taste like coconut and lime, he says), and eating bush tucker out on country in Western Australia, only deepened it.
In 2024 his passion not only for preserving Indigenous knowledge and practices, but introducing them into modern dishes, was cemented as he joined Gather Foods — an Aboriginal-owned catering, food manufacturing and retail company — as its head chef. The company is launching Manjaree, a precinct on Fremantle’s Victoria Quay for cultural and food events.
And as if he wasn’t busy enough, Bulatao is releasing his first cookbook Gather, with Manjaree founder Gerry Matera and Dr Vivienne Hansen. It’s a beautifully photographed collection of his favourite recipes using native ingredients found in our own WA backyard.
“In springtime, I like going for the more flowery sort of stuff,” he shares of what he’s currently foraging. “Geraldton wax is in season right now, and all your succulents start to pop out, like your pigface, sandfires and saltbush are starting to look really good too. Wild fennel, all the fronds start to come out and in about a few weeks time all of the seeds and fennel flowers will start to come out too.”
In a special shoot with STM on the shores of Coogee, he shows off some of these ingredients, including Geraldton wax and quandong berries, which are typically not ready until the end of November. Not enough rain this year, Bulatao says.
Gather is split into bites, mouthfuls, sides and sweets, with chapters on the basics and a native ingredient glossary. Everything used can be bought, foraged or grown, and many natives are sold dried so they can be used year-round.
Confident home cooks might want to give the Wagin duck breast with Davidson plum gastrique and fermented turnip a try, or Bulatao’s personal favourite the Rivermint lamb shoulder designed to eat with your hands. Beginners, he says, should start with the six-ingredient cinnamon myrtle damper (the recipe shared below).
Above his love for cooking sits his son Silas, whom the cookbook is dedicated to. On school holidays you can often find him out foraging with his dad, soaking up everything he knows. He’s becoming quite the cook himself, and makes a mean scrambled eggs.
With Gather soon to hit shelves, Bulatao admits he’s nervous about how it will be received. Mostly, though, he’s thinking about how far he’s come in his career.
Not bad for a kid who started out selling a pinched hotcake recipe for pocket money.
Cinnamon myrtle damper
Ingredients
- 500g self-raising flour
- 25g ground cinnamon myrtle
- 20g salt
- 200g natural Greek yogurt
- 100ml water
- Vegetable or canola oil
Method
Step 1 Preheat oven to 180C
Step 2 Place all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine.
Step 3 Add the yogurt and water, then mix until the dough starts to come together.
Step 4 Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and pliable.
Step 5 Place a large ovenproof frying pan over low heat and add a little oil. Once the oil is hot, shape the dough into a flat round (roughly the size of your pan) and cook for 20 minutes, or until browned underneath.
Step 6 Carefully flip the damper, then place into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until browned.
Serves 6